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2022 Hautes Alpes Blanc “Grand Pic”
Domaine Les Hauts LieuxIn 2019, mountain sports enthusiast Mickaël Olivon settled in the remote Hautes-Alpes region to pursue his other passion, wine. He recovered some of France’s highest vineyards, perched at 3,000 feet elevation beneath some of the tallest summits in the Alps, and got to work producing unlikely field blends such as this white featuring Marsanne, Jacquère, Altesse, Müller Thurgau, and Chasan. It doesn’t taste like anything we’ve ever imported before, so I like to open it to stump my guests, confuse sommeliers, and ultimately savor a cool glass of something delicious and unusual.
—Anthony Lynch
Wine Type: | white |
Vintage: | 2022 |
Bottle Size: | 750mL |
Blend: | 40% Marsanne, 20% Jacquère, 20% Altesse, 15% Müller Thurgau, 5% Chasan |
Appellation: | IGP Hautes Alpes |
Country: | France |
Region: | Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes |
Producer: | Domaine Les Hauts Lieux |
Winemaker: | Mickaël Olivon |
Vineyard: | Planted in 1980s, 1.8 ha total |
Soil: | Moraine and scree (dolomite, silt, gravel) |
Farming: | Organic (certified) |
Alcohol: | 13.5% |
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2022 Savoie Chignin-Bergeron “Les Roches Blanches”
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About The Producer
Domaine Les Hauts Lieux
The domaine sits above the town of Embrun in the Hautes-Alpes département, between the Alpine city of Gap and the French-Italian border. At the far north of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, the area enjoys a continental climate with strong Mediterranean influence, more similar to Alto Adige than neighboring Savoie or Provence. In fact, the Hautes-Alpes are distinct from both the Provence and Savoie wine regions, in terms of terroir as well as their winemaking traditions. “You need to have a pioneering spirit to make wine here,” says winemaker, Mickaël Olivon, pointing out that local wines have rarely ever been produced on a commercial scale (even today, just a handful of small domaines call this area home). As a result, a hodgepodge mix of grapes—hybrids and transplants from other regions—are found on these Alpine slopes, with Mollard being the only true native. Mickaël has already begun replanting with varieties he feels are better adapted to the mountain terroir, including Savagnin, Pinot Noir, and Persan.
About The Region
Savoie, Bugey, Hautes-Alpes
Fifteen or twenty years ago, there was little buzz about the wines of Savoie, the Alpine region hugging the Swiss and Italian borders. In fact, most wines from Savoie were some combination of overcropped, thin, searingly acidic, and painfully rustic; even the best examples rarely made it out of the local mountain resorts, where they were served as an après-ski to wash down many a melty croque-monsieur.
But all that has changed, and today Savoie produces a number of top-quality wines in all styles, from simple thirst-quenchers to wines of substantial gravity. Kermit sought out some of these wines early in his career, having imported the spritzy, mineral whites of Apremont and Chignin in the late 1970s.
With vineyards at the foot of the Alps that occasionally climb to higher elevations, Savoie is defined by its mountain-influenced climate and extremely rocky terrain, with abundant limestone. Thanks to a diversity of indigenous grape varieties, quality-oriented growers with the choicest parcels—steep and well-exposed—can craft anything from crisp, low-alcohol whites from Jacquère to deep, gamey reds from Mondeuse. More serious whites are made from Altesse as well as Bergeron, the local name for Roussanne, which the Romans planted on the slopes of Chignin around the same time as they introduced it to the Rhône Valley.
Savoie’s diversity of styles and distinct sub-regions, from Arbin to Seyssel to the Bugey (technically not a part of Savoie, but included here for convenience) makes it a fascinating region for the thirsty explorer. There is no better place to look for brisk mountain refreshment.
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch